Chris Ofili: Afrotranslinear
@ The Arts Club of Chicago
201 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611
On view through Wednesday, December 22nd
Ofili’s works on paper are fully realized works, and done concurrently with his painting and sculpture. According to Ofili, “it’s to do with things falling into place at the right time, in a painting or a drawing, and sometimes with a drawing you can be more relaxed†(from “Ekow Eshun interviews Chris Ofili†in Chris Ofili, Tate Publishing 2010). The exhibition is comprised of 116 works on paper created between 1995 and 2007. It concentrates on black and white graphite works, from the artist’s early, almost abstract “afro heads†to his intertwined figures, and on watercolors, including a series of female portraits, the Afromuses; a selection of Afromuses (Couples); and two nine-part works, Afro Muses (The Unkissed Gardener) and Gardener. Ofili’s muse is the contemporary black woman in all her glorious countenances: lush, bejeweled, with elaborate hairstyles, and adorned in richly patterned clothing. The works elicit both a visceral and intellectual response, making the viewer complicit in the dance between the seducer and the seduced. The relationship between the sexes is a common thread throughout the exhibition.
Chris Ofili is one of the most acclaimed painters working today. His paintings and works on paper engage with history, the intersection between popular culture and high art, race, religion, society, and identity. As Chicago-based artist Kerry James Marshall says in his essay in the exhibition catalogue, “not only are [Ofili’s] pictures uncompromising in their highly stylized treatment of ‘Black’ figures, he is also relentless in his decorative and referential excesses.â€
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